Also sprach Zarathustra

[Raditzu]

Originally posted by Bebi
Though I've heard the cut scenes are ridiculously long.

You heard right. Sometimes they kind of come out of nowhere, too. In the first game, once you finish the game's "intro" dungeon you were treated to a series of consecutive cutscenes that were over two hours in length. While that was probably the "worst" example (barring ending movies) all the games continue on in that vein.

As long as you have time to sit through them, you'll be fine. Even if you don't, everything in Xenosaga is pause-able. If you're paying attention to the story, you can kind of guess when the major cut-scenes will be coming up, too.